I like the geneology of beechcraft, if you look at this fuselage and think ‘late Bonanza’ with two engines ? then look again and think ‘early Baron’ with a rearward fin …. And how about that ‘one piece windscreen’ for 1959 ??

Keith 🙂

Actually it’s an early Bonanza fuselage (with the small triangular rear window like the 1955-60 Bonanzas), a T-34 fin and this airframe (which dates from 58-62) has been updated with a late 60s-on windshield with a greater slope…(introduced on the V35B Bonanza). One piece windshields were introduced only during the final year of the Travel Air in 1968.

Beech seems to have had a parts bin and simply mixed and matched parts to create new designs. 🙂 It’s been said everything post-war was based on Bonanza wings with different centre sections and tips.

As you know, the Travel Air and later Baron were simply twin-engined Bonanzas while the older, larger Twin Bonanza became the Queen Air when fitted with a larger fuselage. With turbines the Queen Air became the King Air and various airliners.

BTW: The original name for the Beech 95 was Badger but was changed to the old Travel Air name (in honor of one of the Beech firm’s predessors) to avoid confusion with the NATO codename for the Soviet bomber.